Ubisoft talks about 80s nostalgia with Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon

Patrick Budmar |
April 19, 2013

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is the most refreshing and oddball game to come out in recent memory.

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is the most refreshing and oddball game to come out in recent memory. While the standalone expansion shares the Far Cry 3 name, which for many was the game of the year for 2012, it is actually a completely different and unrelated experience. The game can be best described as a fusion of 2003's Tron 2.0 game by Monolith Productions with the design aesthetics of games such as 1989's Zerowing, famous for the "All your base are belong to us" Internet meme. Throw in a story and characters that would not be out of place in a Chuck Norris movie such as 1986's The Delta Force, and then you will have Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon.

Ubisoft creative director, Dean Evans (DE): Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is an all-out honest cyber shooter that doesn't take itself too seriously. In a genre saturated with super serious narrative and realistic settings, we felt it was time to inject some good old fashioned robofun into it. Think of it as the third movie in an action franchise, where it's got a bit tired and long in the tooth. It's that moment when the producers decide to go all in. Robocop 3 and Rambo 3 are great examples of movies that just went crazy to explode or implode the franchise. Toys, cartoons, cereal, that kind of stuff came flooding in. The philosophy with Blood Dragon was to create something that's so bad it's good. Many shooters are just 80s action movies in disguise, so we just embraced it and ran with it.

Can you tell us about the vision behind the game?

DE: Blood Dragon is the product on growing up in the 80s and 90s, late nights watching action movies and playing first and second gen consoles, and a single light from the TV illuminating the room while burning your retina. It's a time when browsing the video store was the highlight of your week. VHS forever, baby. I miss the aesthetic of those times. Chrome, lasers, cyborgs, neon and smoke. And when I talked about it with the team, I realised I was not alone and they happily joined the cyber-ranks. It's a timeless aesthetic that unfortunately has almost disappeared from gaming. There was a time when it ruled the world and I say bring it back. It was the birth of our industry and deserves to be celebrated.